On the Borderline of the Worlds: Swamps in the mythopoetic world picture of the peoples of Russia

Abstract

This article analyses the ethnic and linguistic world vision of the peoples of Russia with the aim of revealing the most representative mythologemes connected with swamps and defining their meaning and place in the cultural landscape. Swamps are dangerous areas for humans and, at the same time, they are also a source of food and biological diversity. In the boreal and circumpolar areas, swamps are seen as a separate world that has been perceived as a chaos that exists beyond the control of human beings. The range of meanings of the swamp manifests itself in the archaic pagan world picture as a primordial space. Swamps can be seen as chthonic or liminal spaces on the threshold of the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ worlds, providing connection between them. In the Christian – and partly in the Muslim – world pictures, the swamp is infernal space where the deities of the ancient world live disguised as devils. The city dwellers who travel to the countryside to pick berries and mushrooms or to go hunting reveal an archaic tendency to depersonalise swamp spirits and other natural forces by avoiding names and precise definitions.